September 18, 2007

School time campaigning

Rosie: This morning Elise and I went into a lesson with a year 10 class at St Augustine School.

Elise talked about how the droughts in Burkina Faso have affected farmers in his area and then I asked the class to come up with ideas about how the UK should make carbon cuts of at least 80 per cent by 2050.

The children came up with loads of good ideas about public transport, green electricity and recycling.

We then talked about what the school could do to reduce its own emissions.

The lesson ended with a brilliant outcome - the class set up a campaign group on the spot and all signed up to get involved with it.

They also helped us come up with some new lyrics to one of our marcher songs (the 500 mile one).

We walked on a busy road to Westbury and experienced the usual mix of hooters and revvers.

The hooters are the cars that give us a little tune of support for the march and the revvers are the cars containing people who for some reason feel that revving their engine is the appropriate response to our protest.

I have to say that I find their behaviour quite interesting: are they enraged because they really do believe that climate change is a myth?

Or is their revving driven by a subconscious sense of guilt because driving their 4 x 4 is having a negative impact on other people’s lives?

Or perhaps they think that by revving their engines they will dissuade us from going on with this campaign.

If that is the case then they are very much mistaken!

Next stop Shaftesbury: Join us in Shaftesbury tomorrow evening, we'll also be in Blandford, Wimborne and Bournemouth this week. Find out more on Pressureworks.